Kosmos-482 (V-72 №671) Stranded Venera Programme Spacecraft Reentered

[Skylab]

Story: http://earth-chronicles.com/space/the-soviet-station-venus-in-the-coming-years-will-fall-to-earth.html

"On March 27, 1972, Venera-8 station went into space. On March 31, the USSR attempted to launch its “twin”, but at the stage of the accelerating unit, which from the near-earth orbit had to lead the station to the interplanetary flight trajectory, the engine failed and the engine turned off. The station, together with the accelerating block, remained in an elongated orbit, revolving around the Earth. In order not to report a failure, instead of the name “Venus-9”, the device was called “Cosmos-482”. In turn, “Venus-8” landed on the surface of Venus and for the first time in the world transmitted scientific information about its surface."

And here's a Russian source for this:
https://habr.com/post/416329/

[Alter Sachse]

Cosmos 482 burnt down 1981 May 5 in the earth's atmosphere.
The object in Earth orbit is probably the landing capsule, which was separated 1972 July 29.*

*may be "July 29" is wrong.

[johnfwhitesell]

This post made me aware of the Venus landers which I didn't even know existed.  Amazing!  They had to make machinery at earth temperatures that would work after they had been heated up to hundreds of degrees celcius, causing the metals to expand.  I thought that the technology to put a machine on the surface of Venus was decades in the future but it was actually decades in the past.

http://mentallandscape.com/C_CatalogVenus.htm
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera09_Processed.jpg
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera10_Processed.jpg
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera13_Camera1.jpg
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera13_Camera2.jpg
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera14_Camera1.jpg
http://mentallandscape.com/C_Venera14_Camera2.jpg

[WindnWar]

Cosmos 482 burnt down 1981 May 5 in the earth's atmosphere.
The object in Earth orbit is probably the landing capsule, which was separated 1972 July 29.

If it is the landing capsule I wonder if it'll make it to the surface in one piece given it was meant to survive the conditions on Venus. Not that it will be found.

[Alter Sachse]

https://in-the-sky.org/spacecraft.php?id=6073

[Blackstar]

The last time a Soviet Venus probe fell back to Earth it was not pretty:

[Star One]

The last time a Soviet Venus probe fell back to Earth it was not pretty:

Is that from the Six Million Dollar Man? As isn’t there an episode where people are terrorised by a robotic space vehicle?

[zubenelgenubi]

The last time a Soviet Venus probe fell back to Earth it was not pretty:

Is that from the Six Million Dollar Man? As isn’t there an episode where people are terrorised by a robotic space vehicle?

"Guest starring" in two 2-part episodes!
"Deathprobe"
"Return of Deathprobe"

Steve vs. probe:

[Skylab]

If it is the landing capsule I wonder if it'll make it to the surface in one piece given it was meant to survive the conditions on Venus. Not that it will be found.

I doubt it, as it won't have such a dense atmosphere to brake against, so I reckon it will burn up or break apart during the faster descent.

[RonM]

The last time a Soviet Venus probe fell back to Earth it was not pretty:

Is that from the Six Million Dollar Man? As isn’t there an episode where people are terrorised by a robotic space vehicle?

"Guest starring" in two 2-part episodes!
"Deathprobe"
"Return of Deathprobe"

Yeah, they don't build them like Deathprobe anymore. 

[Blackstar]

Yeah, they don't build them like Deathprobe anymore. 

No matter what you do, do not taunt Deathprobe. It doesn't like that.

[Star One]

The last time a Soviet Venus probe fell back to Earth it was not pretty:

Is that from the Six Million Dollar Man? As isn’t there an episode where people are terrorised by a robotic space vehicle?

"Guest starring" in two 2-part episodes!
"Deathprobe"
"Return of Deathprobe"

Steve vs. probe:

What an awesome fight, they don’t make them like that any more. Also more space probes should be fitted with lassoes!

[plutogno]

IIRC radiation from a returning Venus probe was the cause of the zombie apocalypse in the classic "Night of the Living Dead"

[Blackstar]

IIRC radiation from a returning Venus probe was the cause of the zombie apocalypse in the classic "Night of the Living Dead"

So I think the one thing we can all agree on is that we're doomed.

[johnfwhitesell]

I for one welcome our NeoSoviet overlords.

[Phillip Clark]

This post made me aware of the Venus landers which I didn't even know existed.  Amazing!  They had to make machinery at earth temperatures that would work after they had been heated up to hundreds of degrees celcius, causing the metals to expand.  I thought that the technology to put a machine on the surface of Venus was decades in the future but it was actually decades in the past.

Venera 7 was actually the first spacecraft to send signals back from the surface of another planet when it transmitted from the surface of Venus in December 1970.   At the time the Russians had started operating Lunokhod 1 on the Moon, so they became the first nation to be receiving signals from the surfaces of two worlds.   Don't forget that a year later they (briefly) got the first signals from the surface of Mars as well: of course Luna 9 had given them the first survivable landing on the Moon in 1966.   Most of these "firsts" are now forgotten of course.

[Danderman]

Wait a minute.  The landing capsule separated from the main vehicle in 1972 and the main vehicle re-entered. What has been keeping the capsule in orbit since separation?

[ddunham]

From (unsourced) wikipedia:

It separated into four pieces, two of which remained in low Earth orbit and decayed within 48 hours into south New Zealand (known as the Ashburton balls incident), and two pieces (presumably the payload and detached engine unit) went into a higher 210 x 9800 km orbit.

[Phillip Clark]

Wait a minute.  The landing capsule separated from the main vehicle in 1972 and the main vehicle re-entered. What has been keeping the capsule in orbit since separation?

Let's think about the orbital data.

The complete Venera/Cosmos 482 spacecraft was placed in the following orbit after the fourth stage shut down early:

1972 Apr  2.181    52.164 deg     201.414 min     206-9,802 km

The Venus entry capsule was clearly on a timer and so it separated in Earth orbit, thinking that it was approaching Venus:

1972 Jul  4.930     52.139            200.253           210-9,710

At this time the orbital data of the main spacecraft bus which would have either burned up in the venerian atmosphere or simply flown  past the planet was:

1972 Jul  4.815     52.118            198.821           210-9,602

Clearly, orbital perturbations were slowly increasing perigee.

So, the separation gave a small impulse to the capsule, increasing apogee by 100 km or so.

I am sure that the difference between the ballistic characteristics, the masses (capsule - 495 kg, main bus - 1,184-495 = 689 kg) and the different orbits of the two objects is enough to explain the longer lifetime.

By the way, the orbit of Cosmos 482 was very similar to the final orbits of the three T2K lunar lander tests which had been conducted: Cosmos 379, 398 and 434.   At first it was thought Cosmos 482 might have been another flight in that series but the placement of the objects in orbit, together with the position of Venus at the time of launch, quickly showed that Cosmos 4382 had been an intended Venus probe.

[gwiz]

Vaguely recall someone getting a good photo of Kosmos 482 and showing it was still the complete vehicle with the capsule still attached.